Independence referendum: Row over currency union continues

LABOUR MP Ian Davidson dismissed First Minister Alex Salmond's plan for an independent Scotland to enter into a formal deal to continue using the pound.

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Ian Davidson has dismissed Alex Salmond's plan to use the pound in an independent Scotland

THERE will not be a currency union with the UK if there is a Yes vote, the head of the Scottish Affairs Committee said yesterday.

Ian Davidson, chairman of the Scottish Affairs Committee at the House of Commons, dismissed First Minister Alex Salmond's plan for an independent Scotland to enter into a formal deal to continue using the pound.

The Labour MP said: " The Scottish Government tries to give the impression that a currency union is still a possibility. It is not. This parrot is dead."

He was speaking as the committee issued a report urging the Scottish Government to publish its "Plan B" for the key issue as a matter of urgency.

"If Scotland leaves the United Kingdom there will not be a currency union," the committee report stated.

"Voters urgently need to be told what the Scottish Government has as a Plan B."

But a spokesman for the First Minister branded the report "lame", and insisted the pound is "as much Scotland's as it is England, Wales and Northern Ireland's".